by Patrick Lang (bio below fold)
Saddam Hussein’s trial will go down in history as a masterpiece of mis-judgment which played directly into the hands of the enemies of the West.
Why?
His crimes and brutalities are manifest. He ruled Iraq with a ferocity of method and maniacal cruelty that would justify his execution many times over, but the method and publicity surrounding his trial will make him what he wants to be, a hero for the ages to many, many in the Islamic World. He wants to be remembered not as a persecutor of Iraqi Shia and Kurds but rather as a modern Saladin ( Yusuf Salah al-Din al-Ayyoubi, etc.).
He is positioning himself to be remembered as the man who “stood up to” the Christian imperialists and Zionists of various persuasions. His antics in the court room are intended to establish an argument for the illiegitimacy of the court, the injustice of its actions and the continued existence of the previous government. He believes himself to be president of Iraq. His government never surrendered. He never resigned. No major units of his army surrendered. They dispersed but did not surrender.
He believes that as the decades pass the memory of his misdeeds will fade and that the trial, and his behavior as a defiant example of the kind of “manhood” widely admired in the Arab World will persist and grow into a legend, a legend of the trial and execution of a legitimate Arab head of state by the “occupiers” and their “lackies.”
Are we contributing to this? Yes, we are. This trial, conducted on television, may meet Iraqi standards of probity, but it will not stand up under long term examination in the court of history. The trial is being conducted largely on the basis of testimony by witnesses who thus far have not connected him directly to the massacre in the village concerned. These witnesses are not available for cross-examination except on the basis of questions submitted to the judge who can decide whether or not to allow them, and in some cases they are hidden behind a screen and their voices are disguised.
What happened to a right we Americans hold sacred, the right to confront one’s accuser? People in the Arab World are not stupid. A lot of them want Saddam dead, but they know a shoddy proceeding when they see one.
To add to the drama, someone is killing and attacking members of the defence team. These lawyers are threatening a “walk-out” based on a claim of fear for their lives. The way things are in Iraq, we may see physical attacks on all concerned.
Why are we doing this? We have enemies incarcerated all over the world without trial. This man’s trial, as it is being conducted, is a major long-term victory for our enemies.
Thirty years from now kids will be buying “Saddam T-shirts” in the suqs of the arab World.
Shot in the foot again.
Pat Lang
Reference: Reuters
Col. Patrick W. Lang (Ret.), a highly decorated retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces, served as “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism” for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. Col. Lang was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point. For his service in the DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann (interview), CNN and Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room (interview), PBS’s Newshour, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” (interview), and more .
Personal Blog: Sic Semper Tyrannis 2005 || Bio || CV
Recommended Books || More BooTrib Posts
Novel: The Butcher’s Cleaver (download free by chapter, PDF format)
“Drinking the Kool-Aid,” Middle East Policy Council Journal, Vol. XI, Summer 2004, No. 2
Good for you, Pat! A courageous stand. … yes, this trial is a sham, and it betrays just how little our government now cares about its founding principles, constitution and bill of rights.
Ramsey Clark … they all say he’s nuts … I’ve wondered many times myself. But I’m glad he’s there. I just wish he had more clout in the U.S.
So Saddam didn’t show today. From reading your piece, it sounds like he’d be smart to show up so people can hear his comments.
I find it interesting that much of the media is treating the trial as a sham as well.
No matter how much one reviles Saddam Hussein, it is not difficult to see that this is a kangaroo court. Many roadblocks have been placed in the path of the defense team. One witness with cancer (since passed away) was deposed on camera. Saddam’s attorneys were not permitted to attend, but the testimony was admitted by the court.
This whole process was set up by the U.S., and it is but the latest example of the ineptitude and arrogance that attends everything the Bush administration does, especially in Iraq. In the end Saddam will be executed amid cries of foul from the rest of the civilized world, and a new martyr will further fuel the insurgency.
Mission accomplished, Mr. Bush?
I don’t want anyone to take this the wrong way, but I was applauding Saddam this morning for refusing to particpate in this joke of a trial. For Pete’s sake, he committed enough crimes and atrocities that are undisputed that there should be no problem in giving him a fair trial. There’s no need to cheat if you’re the one holding all the cards, IMO.
maybe they are NOT holding all of the cards.
Or…maybe they are not playing with a full deck.
AG
I think it’s the latter…
Or both, of course…
AG
the US set this trial up hoping to cash in on some of that same “manhood” stuff saddam is gonna benefit from in the penis waving arab world.
The occupation forces (let’s call them that because they’re occupying both Iraq and the US Government) have shown from day 1 of all this that they don’t understand the Arab mentality, have never understood the Arab mentality, are never going to understand the Arab mentality, and have no interest whatever in understanding the Arab mentality. So it should surprise exactly no one that all this is happening.
The setup and dynamics of the trial are organized around “entertainment” parameters, not “news” or “justice” parameters.
I’m surprised the odious CNN harpy Nancy Grace isn’t over there “reporting” from the scene.
All,
I would think that saddam will be back in court. He will not want to pass up the chance for more of this. pat
“A star is born!”
Take that, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears!
At first I thought Pat Lang was talking about George Bush but then I realized it was Sadaam.
Pat Lang said “His crimes and brutalities are manifest. He ruled Iraq with a ferocity of method and maniacal cruelty that would justify his execution many times over,”
Well, you have already decided he should be executed many times over and then you call for “the appearance” of a fair trial. Sounds like you want him dead, period. You just want it to look fair for publicity purposes.
I think the truth should come out about Sadaam. What exactly he did and did not do.
Most everything we hear about him is exaggeration.
The difference between George Bush and Sadaam Hussein has dissapered. Both are said to have torture and rape rooms, Gassed the Iraqi people, killed hundreds of thousand of Iraqis in ethnic cleansing,
disspeared people etc.
The facts surrounding this on Bush on are video tape and a matter of record.
The facts surrounding Sadaams crimes are obscured by exaggeration’
I would rather see Bush on trial and Sadaam restored to power.
Compared to the people who have been successfully running their game here since JFK was murdered, Hussein is a piker.
Hell if this was a baseball team and there was a murderer’s row of hitters, he’d be batting about 8th.
Clean-up hitter?
Kissinger, on the stats.
Surrounded by people Like Bush I, Rumsfeld, and Cheney.
Bush II?
He’d be the waterboy.
And the OWNERS!!!???
The owners make George Steinbrenner look like the Kleveland Klown he really is.
Nasty.
AG
Stop this world
Get me Off
There’s just too many pigs in the same trough
…Mose allison
Thanks , Brother Gilroy…Real Straight
Mose knows.
AG
And here is my answer:
We hold very little “dear” in the field of justice, when you get right down to it. The fix is too often in right on up and down the system, from inner city courts straight through to the Supremes.
Remember…Butch II came to power in the first place due to a fix in the Supreme Court.
And they fixed us GOOD!!!
It may not have been a money-changes-hands kind of fix. More like a politically-packed-court-thanks-to-Ratpubkican-Presidents-of-the-past kind of fix.
But it was a fix nevertheless.
What real chance does a powerless inner city kid caught up in the insanity of institutionalized, racially enforced poverty and the so-called justice system really have? Sure, he can confront his accusers. Men with the full weight of the so-called law and society behind them. Men who represent a system that has poured…or at the very best has turned an essentially blind eye to the truth of the matter…literally trillions of dollars of drugs into the inner cities of America since the early ’70s in an attempt to stop the only real opposition to their plans that existed and make some big bucks in the process as well. A cherished right? For him? Doubt it. More of a realization that the fix has been in as far as he is concerned since he was born, unless he is truly blessed with great abilities. And even then, he would have had to have been twice as good as the average suburban middle class kid to get over.
Where are the cherished rights of the thousands who lost their life savings in the business as usual Enron scam?
Of the HUNDREDS of thousands who have become displaced persons since Katrina?
No.
I got yer “cherished rights” right HERE!!!
So what we are really seeing in the Hussein trial is business as usual.
US style with an Iraqi accent.
It makes NO DIFFERENCE if Saddam Hussein is guilty or innocent. He is already convicted, and both he and everyone else knows that.
Or…he is already acquitted.
Or…he ‘escapes” or is assassinated.
Or maybe more accurately…the fixes are already in, and now it’s just a matter of which one wins.
SOME fix is already in.
Guaranteed.
But guilt or innocence…?
Don’t make me laugh.
Our system is almost completely broken. If Fitzgerald actually manages to take these people down, if Delay and Abramoff and the rest are convicted and punished…it is STILL a fix. The fix just shifted, and now OTHER criminals will get off.
I say again…until the people who planned and carried out the assassinations of the ’60s + ’70s, the takedown of Nixon, the Iran Contra/B.C.C.I./Reagan figurehead/Bush I regime and the farce that has taken place in the US since the 2000 election theft are identified and those who remain alive publicly punished to the full extent of what remains of the law, then we cannot criticize ANY tinhorn dictator.
ESPECIALLY one we created and maintained.
He may be a monster. Mr. Hussein…but he is OUR monster.
Our dybbuk, our golem come back to haunt us.
And you know what?
Monster or not, he is right.
It IS a show trial.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
AG
It is very distressing to me to see us playing into the hands of this guy and his ilk. Well said, that he has been so hideous, but is now building a case for being persecuted. As I have said before, the temptation to have him tried in Iraq (so that, presumably, the Iraqis he oppressed for so long can exact retribution) should have been resisted in favor of trying him in an international court. Just think, he could have waited in incarceration while the court finished with Milosevic and had a trial on crimes against humanity, conducted before a tribunal that did not have its own hands dirty based on its reprehensible conduct in Iraq.
My earlier comments on this are: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/12/1/144018/703
Meanwhile, I have to wonder just how wrong this can go–but don’t try to answer that, just keep watching.
is where Saddam should have been tried. The International court has credibility.
By the way:
“Thirty years from now kids will be buying “Saddam T-shirts” in the suqs of the arab World.”
It may be sooner and may not be confined to the Arab world. Out here in Buddhist Thailand a short time after 9/11 Ossama bin Laden T-shirts were being sold and worn. Since then our popularity has not increased.